Cathodic sputtering processes are widely used for the deposition of thin films of material onto desired substrates. A typical sputtering system includes a plasma source for generating an electron or ion beam, a target that comprises a material to be atomized and a substrate onto which the sputtered material is deposited. The process involves bombarding the target material with an electron or ion beam at an angle that causes the target material to be sputtered or eroded. The sputtered target material is deposited as a thin film or layer on the substrate.
The target materials for sputtering process range from pure metals to ever more complicated alloys. The use of complex 3 to 6 element alloys is common in the sputtering industry. Alloying additions such as boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon and so on are frequently added to Cr-, Co-, Fe-based alloys and other intermetallic alloys to modify characteristics such as deposited film grain-size, surface energy and magnetic properties.
The presence of non-metal additions like boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and silicon to target materials is either in the form of pure elements, e.g. boron and carbon, or in the form of compounds like nitride and oxide. The pure element phases such as boron and carbon and the compound phases like boride, carbide, nitride, oxide, and silicide, however cause spitting problems during sputtering. The present invention provides a solution to this problem.